Early enrollee headed to LSU baseball program

Barash will forego final semester at West Boca Raton high school to join the Tigers in January.

The LSU baseball program has reached into Florida for another catcher, and this time the Tigers will get Michael Barash a little earlier than expected.

On Monday Barash told Matt Porter from the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post that he will enroll at LSU in January of 2013, the first player the Tigers have secured as an early enrollee – an emerging trend in college baseball.

Barash played two seasons at West Boca Raton Community High School, both as the Bulls' starting catcher. He batted .500 last season. Barash joins current freshman Chris Chinea from Miami and two-year starter Ty Ross from Naples as LSU backstops from the Sunshine State.

By enrolling in January, Barash will speed up his draft eligibility clock and be available for the 2015 draft. The benefit for LSU is that he will not be draftable next spring.

"I'm going to come in the spring and expedite the draft process," Barash said in Porter's story. "With the new (Collective Bargaining Agreement), there's not a lot of money going around. … I've accomplished everything I wanted to at West Boca. It's time to make a new challenge for myself."

Barash is the third SEC player to enroll early in the last two years, and the second from Florida. Last year, Taylor Gushue from Fort Lauderdale Calvary Christian joined the Florida program in January and Chris Harvey was on Vanderbilt's roster when last spring semester began.

Two prominent players followed a similar path to being picked in the first round of the 2011 draft: UCLA pitcher Trevor Bauer and North Carolina shortstop Levi Michael.